Rebel mercenaries advanced north towards Moscow after seizing a key military base Saturday, just as Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin’s vowed to defeat the revolt and head off the threat of civil war.
The rapidly escalating events mark the most serious challenge yet to the Russian president’s rule — and Russia’s most serious security crisis since the strongman came to power in late 1999.
Putin’s spokesman insisted the Russian leader was still at work in the Kremlin and had not fled Moscow, as regular forces launched a “counter-terrorist operation” to halt the rebel advance in the Voronezh region, on the Wagner force’s route to the capital.
The governor of the Lipetsk region, whose capital is just 420 kilometres (260 miles) south of Moscow, said Wagner’s private military force was “moving across” the territory and urged civilians not to leave their homes.
Ukrainian leaders, meanwhile, revelled in the outbreak of in-fighting among its Russian…